Support for clothes hangers



April 9, 1963 J. T. KOENEN 3,084,894

SUPPORT FOR CLOTHES HANGERS INVENTOR JOHN T. KOENEN ATTORNEYS p i 9, 1963 J. T. KOENEN 3,084,894

SUPPORT FOR CLOTHES HANGERS Filed Aug. 23; 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 III/I INVENTOR JOHN T. KOENEN ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,0$4,394 SUPPQRT FOR CLOTHES HANGERS John T. Keenan, 4149 N. 13th St, Milwaukee, Wis. Filed Aug. 23, 1961, Ser. No. 133,496 1 Claim. (Cl. 248-273) This invention appertains to garment supports and more particularly to a novel device for supporting coat hangers and the like, in a convenient position relative to an article of furniture in a bedroom, for receiving a suit of clothes and other articles of wearing apparel which are to be worn by a person upon rising.

It has heretofore been proposed to provide collapsible supports for coat and like hangers. All of these supports with which I am familiar, extend outward at right angles to the attaching bracket and to the wall or other supporting surface. Thus even after the collapsing of the device, the same is clearly visible to the eye of a casual observer. I am also aware, that it is common to provide a piece of bedroom furniture known as a valet for supporting a suit of clothes.

One of the primary objects of my invention is to provide a support for coat and like hangers for night use, embodying a bracket for attachment to the rear face of a chest of drawers or other piece of furniture, and a collapsible supporting arm carried by the bracket and disposed parallel to the bracket and to the rear face of the article of furniture, whereby when the support is not in use, the arm can be swung down in a collapsed position in back of the furniture and in and out-of-the-way position not visible to the eye.

' Another salient object of my invention is to provide a support for coat and like hangers which can be secured to either the right or left hand side of a piece of furniture by the mere reversing of the position of the supporting arm in the bracket.

A further important object of my invention is to provide a garment support embodying an attaching bracket including spaced parallel walls for attaching flat against the rear face of a selected piece of furniture, with a reversible supporting arm pivoted between and longitudinally of the walls for movement parallel to the walls and to the rear face of the piece of furniture, the upper corner of the inner end of said arm being provided with a keeper notch out of longitudinal alignment with the center of the arm for receiving a stationary latch pin, whereby the arm can be effectively held in a raised operative position for supporting a maximum amount of weight with out injury to the arm of the bracket.

A still further important object of the invention is to provide the arm in two sections, namely, an inner section pivoted to the bracket for collapsing movement and an outer swinging section, the outer swinging section being movable to any desired position relative to the article of furniture and an adjacent wall, the outer section being readily detachable from the inner section, so as to reduce over all size of the device for shipping and storing.

Another still further important object of my invention is to provide a collapsible support for garment hangers which will be durable and efiicient in use, one that will be simple and easy to manufacture and one which can be placed upon the market at a reasonable cost.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and formation of parts, as will be hereinafter more specifically described and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which drawings,

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view showing my improved appliance attached to an article of furniture, namely a chest of drawers, the appliance being shown in its extended operative position for receiving garment hangers;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view showing the improved appliance attached to the rear face of an article of furniture and at one side thereof, parts of the figure being shown broken away and in section to illustrate structural detail, the support being shown in its operative position in full lines and its collapsed outof-the-way position in dotted lines;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary detail view showing my appliance attached to the rear face of an article of furniture and with the supporting arm in its raised operative position in full lines and in its lowered inoperative position in dotted lines, parts of the figure being shown broken away and in section to illustrate structural detail;

FIGURE 4- is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3, looking in the direction of the arrows, the view showing the outer section of the supporting arm in one position in full lines and in a selected swung out position in dotted line, and

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 but showing my novel support secured to the other upper corner of the article of furniture.

Referring to the drawings in detail, wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, the letter S generally indicates my improved collapsible support for a plurality of coat hangers, not shown. The support S is adapted to be secured to the rear face of a selected piece of bedroom furniture, such as a chest of drawers D. While I have specified that the support S is to be attached to a piece of furniture, it is to be understood that the support can be used with other things. However, as brought out in the objects it is one of the primary features of the invention to provide a support which can be attached to the rear face of a piece of furniture so that the same can be collapsed between the rear face of the piece of furniture and a wall to an out-of-sight position.

The support S includes a bracket 10 and a supporting arm 11.

The bracket 10 can be made in any desired size suitable for the work intended, and of any desired material. As shown, the bracket is fabricated from sheet metal and includes a rear wall or face plate 12 having rigidly secured thereto an outer spaced wall 13. The upper edge of the Wall 13 terminates short of the upper edge of the inner wall or face plate 12 and is offset inwardly to provide an upper spaced wall 1 5. This Wall 14 in turn carries an upstanding attaching flange 15 which is rigidly secured to the inner wall or face plate 12. As shown, screws 16 pass through the flange 15 and the inner wall or face plate 12 and into the rear face of the chest of drawers. Thus, the inner wall 12 lies flat against the inner face of the article of furniture and is parallel therewith, as is the outer spaced wall 13. The lower corners of the inner Wall or face plate 12 can also be provided with openings for receiving attaching screws 17, which are threaded into the rear wall of the article of furniture. To facilitate the placing of the screws 17 in place, the outer wall 13 is of a less width than the width of the inner wall or face plate 12.

The arm 11 includes an inner section 18 and an outer swinging section 19. The inner section 18 can be made from plastic, wood, or any other desired material, and includes a straight body portion having an offset head 20 which lies substantially in a horizontal plane when the arm 18 is in its operative extended position. The inner end of the arm is confined between the walls 12 and 13 of the bracket and this arm extends longitudinally of the bracket and is parallel to the walls of the bracket. The arm has formed therein adjacent to its inner end a short longitudinally extending slot 21, and this slot receives a pivot pin 22 carried by the walls of the bracket. This assasaa pivot pin can be in the nature of a bolt, so that the same can be removed, for a purpose, which will be later set forth. The inner upper corner of the inner section of the arm has formed therein a notch 23 and this notch is at one side of the longitudinal center of the arm. On each side of the pivot pin 22 and below the pivot pin, the walls 12 and 13 have formed therein pairs of aligned openings 24- and a selected pair of the openings 24 receives a rigid latch pin 25. The pin can also be in the nature of a bolt so that the same can be removed, for a purpose which will also be later brought out.

However, it can be seen that the arm can be swung on the pivot pin 22 and can be moved to a raised elevated position extending outwardly from the article of furniture or to a lowered inoperative position in rear of the piece of furniture. By sliding the arm on the pivot pin 22 the walls of the notch 23 can be moved into and out of engagement with the latch pin 25. As best shown in FIGURE 3, when the walls of the notch engage the latch pin, then the arm will be firmly held in its raised operative poistion. By sliding the arm up on the pin 22 the notch can be disengaged from the pin 25 and swung down to its out-of-sight position.

The outer section 19 of the arm can be formed in various manners and from any desired material and is hingedly connected to the head of the inner section 18. With the section 18 in its raised elevated position, the section 19 is connected to the section 18 by a pivot disposed in a vertical plane and thus the outer section can be swung on the head 20 to different positions and to a position at an angle to an adjacent wall. As illustrated, I have made the section 19 out of a folded length of resilient wire. Thus, the length of wire includes upper and lower stretches 26 and 27 connected by a bight portion 28. The inner ends of the stretches 26 and 27 have formed thereon inwardly extending fingers 29 which are adapted to snap into an opening 30 formed in the head 20. The bight portion 28 can be bent into shape, that is, a hook shape, to limit outward movement of coat hangers thereon. The connection of the outer section 19 with the inner section 18 is such that the outer section 19 can swing thereon to different positions. Obviously, if the outer section 19' is formed from a solid piece of material then the same can be connected to the head 20 by an ordinary type of hinge.

The bracket 10 can be secured to the article of furniture from either side thereof and in FIGURE 5, I have shown the bracket secured to the rear face of the piece of furniture on the opposite side thereof from that shown in FIGURE 3. To use the bracket on the corner of the furniture as shown in FIGURE 5, it is merely necessary to remove the pivot pin 22 and the latch pin and to reverse the position of the arm 11 and to replace the pivot pin and to put the latch pin 25 in the other pair of openings 24.

From the foregoing description, it can be seen that I have provided a support for coat hangers, which can be folded down to an out-of-the-way position and out-ofsight position parallel with the rear face of a piece of furniture and between the article of furniture and an adjacent wall. Thus, when the support is not in use the same does not detract from the appearance of the article of furniture or the room.

With the support connected to a dresser or the like, the same can be moved to a raised operative position and a person undressing for the night can readily hang his clothes on hangers and then on the support.

Great stress is laid on the position of the arm 11 when the same is in its operative position. It will be noted that the arm extends upwardly and outwardly from the bracket and this gives a desired height to the arm above the piece of furniture, so that the garments will be held in a raised, elevated position well above the floor.

Changes in details may be made without departing from the spirit or the scope of this invention, but what I claim as new is:

A support for garment hangers and the like comprising a bracket including spaced parallel side walls and means for securing one of said side Walls fiat against the rear face of a piece of furniture, an arm carried by the bracket and having its inner end confined between said walls and pivoted to said walls and positioned parallel to the walls and to the rear face of the furniture, means for detachably securing the arm in a raised operative positron, and said arm being movable to a lowered inoperative position in rear of the article of furniture and between .the article of furniture and an adjacent wall, said arm being adapted to receive and support coat hangers and the like, and said arm including an inner section and an outer section, the inner section having formed on its outer end an angularly extending head provided with a bore and said outer section including upper and lower stretches, a wire bight portion resiliently connecting said stretches and inwardly extending legs formed on the inner ends of the stetches adapted .to be snapped into said bore, the inner section extending upwardly and forwardly at an angle to the bracket and said inner section extending outwardly in a horizontal plane when said arm is in its raised position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 372,883 Wais Nov. 8, 1887 894,561 Wood July 28, 1908 1,170,919 McCallum Feb. 8, 1916 1,176,578 McCabe Mar. 21, 1916 1,442,395 Gmeinwieser Jan. 16, 1923 2,039,758 Wayne May 5, 1936 2,409,152 Rundell Oct. 8, 1946 

